December 15, 2002

Anime Network Rant

When I first heard about The Anime Network I was pretty psyched. A whole network just for anime? I guess it could happen. I mean there's G4, the network for video games (which I must say is kind of trippy to watch).

But now more details are being released and I'm getting a little disappointed with what I am hearing. First, one thing we knew about the network was that it is owned by ADV. I had hoped that despite the ownership they would have shows from a number of different companies. At least initially this doesn't seem to be so. They are all titles that are owned by ADV. Which is fine, because I like a lot of the shows, but it definitely seems to be targetted towards a certain demographic. And I've also seen most of the shows they will have on. In fact, I own the ones from ADV that I'm even interested in seeing. It will also mean that if other companies want their shows on TV they will have to either work something out with someplace like toon network, or start their own anime network. Who thinks there's enough of an audience for two 24 hour anime networks?

The next issue is that it appears it will be only available via Video on Demand. As far as I can tell this is a fairly new type of service that is not available in lots of places. It is similar to Pay-per-View, but not quite the same. You will be able to call up a menu and say 'I want to watch Gasaraki'. And then you will be able to watch Gasaraki, even being able to pause it and stuff like that. Nice technology, but I know my digital cable service doesn't offer it. So even if they wanted to show it they would have to start offering a whole new service they aren't currently. I would have much rather seen them have a regular cable network like Starz or Encore, but targetted towards anime. Then they'd have a much larger potential audience (I'm pretty sure the number of cable customers interested in anime is much larger than the number of digital cable customers with video on demand that are interested in anime).

So, where I was once happy, I'm now pretty unenthused. Maybe they'll surprise me somehow, but for now I'm not really that jazzed about it (especially since I don't have any chance of even getting it at this point in time). Oh yeah, and there was one other thing. Initial word is that they are showing 'uncut' dubs.

Comments

No! Noooo! Bad example! Mention not the evil that is Gasaraki! Oh, woe to he who watches that most foul excuse for a mech show. I mean, considering it's a total Evangelion ripoff in the first place, they could at least have copied some of Eva's good parts as well as the bad.

In short, thinking man's mech show my ass.

Er... and on topic, all that does dull my anticipation of the anime channel. Especially since I won't be able to watch it even on the rare occasions when I do have a TV.